AllAboutJazz.com (Victor Schermer): "Jazz
guitarists will find Butrey's rich improvisational capabilities of
great interest. He likes to play with possibilities and demonstrates
rich motivic and chordal development. There is an ingenuity repeatedly
occurring as he and his cohorts try on new "skins" in chameleon-like
adaptations. After several listens, the head spins from exposure to the
myriad musical changes that, in turn, evoke changes in the psyche. In
that sense, the music is transformational, provoking changes in the
sense of self much like a psychedelic drug."

The band for Rebecca Coupe Franks appearance at Jazz Live San Diego, Tuesday, March 8, 2011 8-10 PM PT from the Seville Theatre at San Diego City College (and broadcast LIVE at Jazz 88.3 FM San Diego and on the web at http://Jazz88.org) has just been announced....

NEW THIS WEEK FOR 2/17/11 - Finally adding the Mingus Big Band 2010 Grammy Winner for Best Large Ensemble Jazz Album...hoo ray! New Charlie Haden music and new music from Art Hillery, the pianist for our last Jazz Live with Red Holloway and Plas Johnson.

I'm blogging the show live and you can listen at http://Jazz88.org or 88.3 FM in San Diego....

9:23 Tune 11 <a blues shouter> They didn't say this was the end, but it sure looks like it based on the time...heading downstairs....

Looks like this will be the tune before the last one...then it's down for the close and onto the rest of the show...

9:14 Tune 10 "Theme from Pink Panther" Plas Johnson plays on the tune that made him famous...you knew he recorded the famous saxophone solo on this tune, right?!

9:07 Tune 9 "Delilah" featuring pianist Art Hillary. Richard Reid is really growly playing the bass...his microphone pickup on the bass really picks him up...sounds great! Everyone's taking a turn on this one...Garryck King on drums just did a nice thing with mallets...I think.

9:01 Tune 8 "Drink Muddy Water" with Red taking the lead on vocals and letting the theatre audience get a few responses in to his calls. The band swings.

8:58 Station ID Break and Q&A: We heard stories about Red and Plas' time in the Army. Red as a bandleader, after doing a stint in the motor pool and 'red lining' his pay...I guess that means he didn't take his pay for some reason. Plas was happy to be done with his time!

Time for me to figure out what we are going to banter and babble about at the 9PM station ID break.

8:47 Tune 7 "Caravan" Red sings the lyric to remember the name of the tune...featuring Garryck King on the buckets.

8:38 Tune 6 "Talk of the Town" Nice ballad choice. Again, Plas calling the tunes as he sees them from the stage. And his buddy Red is hanging right there with the band on stage...bet he wishes he was playing side by side with Plas (they talked about this in the pre-recorded interview).

8:31 Tune 5 "I Feel Good" A little James Brown being pulled out of the hat by Plas. The crowd is loving it!

8:01 Tune 1 "Lucky So and So" We didn't quite hit the 8:00 mark with the first tune, so I wonder what the 'toss' sounded like...the end of Tune 0 and then we went right into the show...LIVE radio with Jazz Legends at it's most unpredictable!

7: 56 Tune 0 "My Shining Hour" Supposed to be for the theatre only, as a last mix check for broadcast...but they didn't quite finish before the 8:00 toss from the studio, so I'm sure the radio audience heard the end of it, with my "LIVE from the Seville Theatre..." opener.

Some pre-show stuff...

Plas, Richard, and Garryk at the soundcheck...
Me with Red and Plas after the Jazz Live San Diego interview...

PopMatters: " The album lacks for nothing as far as musical talent, with Hakim’s deft
handiwork on drums, Rachel Z’s rollercoaster waves of piano movements,
and Royce’s rumbling bass lines. They even manage to add flavor to some
of the original compositions with flourishing solos and tempo changes,
as in the Trio’s revisit of “Angry Chair” by Alice in Chains. " "The downside is that the Trio doesn’t always mesh as a single unit. At
times, their collaboration seems more like three soloists playing at
once, each one elbowing the other for coveted space."

Sea of Tranquility (John Neudorf): "The trio produces a full rich sound that will have all jazz fans
reaching for their wallets. This may in fact be my favourite jazz CD
this year and when you look at the players it is not hard to see why." "What makes this album a little different is the choice of songs the trio
chose to tackle. Instead of the usual standards of the past, they have
mostly reworked recent rock and pop compositions, making this a
completely refreshing and rewarding listen. Although I encourage
rock/pop fans to give this a listen, this is still a jazz recording
through and through, albeit a very good one."

AllAboutJazz.com (Jeff Winbush): "The eclectic and restless musical tastes of drummer Omar Hakim and pianist Rachel Nicolazzo (aka Rachel Z) offer some mighty impressive bait to reel them in, The Trio of Oz's repertoire reading like an hour's worth of college radio station programming." "...rendering
their creation of new ways to splice the seemingly contradictory jazz
and rock idioms together into some sort of mutant hybrid—capturing the
fun of the latter without compromising the integrity of the
former—completely understandable."

Some great new added by Joe, including the Marcus Shelby, Lisa Hilton...will be interesting to hear the Marcus Miller and Omar Hakim/Rachel Z things. You can hear a lot of this for the first time on radio weekly on The New Jazz Thing (http://TNJT.com), 6-8 PM PT Thursdays on Jazz 88.3 FM and http://Jazz88.org

Looking for feedback on the latest adds to the Jazz 88 KSDS San Diego Music Library. Got something you want to hear? Do you have a story about the artist or the release? What's the impact of this new release?

Geoffrey Keezer piano and Peter Sprague guitar play music from their new disc "Mill Creek Road" along with Hamilton Price bass and Duncan Moore drums with guests Zach Harmon tabla and Erica Ochoa fiddle at Jazz Live San Diego Tuesday, January 11, 2011.

Hard to believe this rockin' blues show TONIGHT, 12/14/10 8PM PT, is not sold out yet, so reserve your tickets now by calling 619-388-3037. Or listen LIVE at 88.3 FM San Diego or http://Jazz88.org (More info there also).

Going to doing a little play-by-play chat here during the show tonight...say hi!

Yale Strom chats with Vince Outlaw before his performance with Hot Pstromi at Jazz Live San Diego, Tuesday, October 12, 2010 at the Seville Theatre at San Diego City College, Broadcast LIVE on Jazz 88.3 FM KSDS San Diego Webcast http://Jazz88.org. Yale chats about the history of Hot Pstromi, Klezmer, his research into Jewish and Roma culture, the plight of the Rom in France, his musical background, and future projects in this 15 minute interview.

Jazz 88.3 KSDS San Diego Station Manager Mark Deboskey just sent word about the band that will be playing with guitar legend, and San Diegan, Mundell Lowe at Jazz Live San Diego on Tuesday, July 13, 2010. And the envelope please....

Mundell Lowe-GuitarMike Wofford-PianoGunnar Biggs-BassJim Plank-Drums

Wow! The cream of the crop, and I just don't mean for San Diego, but these are all world-renowned Jazz Cats! Should be a great show. Members get your reservations now at 619-388-3037...if not already, then this WILL be a sell out, I'm sure. Everyone else gets to participate by listening in at Jazz 88.3 FM San Diego and our webcast at http://Jazz88.org!

Patience is not one of my virtues. An ability to accessorize? Sure. But to say I've been "patiently" waiting for the day when we could finally get the Jazz88.3 blog up and running wouldn't be a correct characterization. Foaming at the mouth? Maybe. Pestering webguy Michael incessantly? Yes.

When you work at a non-profit, patience is a must. Things just don't happen as quickly as you want them to, whether it's from lack of funds, lack of staffing, or any number of bureaucratic loopholes. We've been working to improve our website for quite some time now, and an ongoing blog has been one of the key components. As an avid blogger in my personal life, I couldn't wait to connect with Jazz88.3 fans in a way that allows them to see the a bit behind-the-scenes. I'm thrilled the blog is finally here, with many more exciting web developments to come!

2010 has already started off with a bang at Jazz88.3. Next week Henry "The Skipper" Franklin comes to Jazz Live, and we couldn't be more delighted. He was here a few years back, played to a sold out crowd, and went down as one of the best shows we've ever had.

In the Development Office, we're pursuing grants to help bolster our education initiatives in the community, we're working on informing our listeners about the Hope Shaw Legacy Society (a way to make a planned estate gift to KSDS), and we're getting ready for a very fun event at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts for our Leadership Circle--starring Ed Asner!

The Membership Department is eagerly planning the Spring Membership Campaign, and continues to strive to make it a time of year that doesn't elicit groans but rather begs the question "what interesting twists will they come up with next?"

But now, I've gotta skedoodle and get to writing this week's edition of The Speakeasy! See you next time!

Claudia Russell, Jazz 88 Program Director and friend extraordinaire, relates this news of the passing of Maurice Turner...

Many of you knew Maurice, a long-time contributor to Jazz 88. Not only
was he a member, but also programmed several world shows with Damaja Le
in the '90s and early '00s. He was a huge fan of jazz and music from
around the world and always encouraged our announcers. Maurice also
contributed to the Jazz Artists Guild newsletter.

Tonight on the show...Karin Carson debuts her new CD "The Time Is Now" on the show and chats about the upcoming release party 1/23/2010 at Tango Del Rey. We'll chat about her San Diego roots, her musical background, how the CD came about with all these great players, and her other musical pursuits.

UPDATE: Video of the interview...yea!!!

Part 1: Chatting about the new disc, Christian McBride, her Jazz upbringing, her interaction with Sam Rivers on her new lyrics to “Beatrice”, and more…

The New Jazz Thing is LIVE! Thursday, January 14, 6 to 8 PM PT on Jazz 88.3 FM, KSDS San Diego, Webcast at http://Jazz88.org! Quick Link: Jazz 88 Playlist Archive for Thursday, January 14, 2010 (scroll to 6PM to see the tunes spontaneously mixed on Tonight's show!)Tonight on the show...in Hour 2 of The New (7PM PT), XBORDER, the new collaboration between the Cross Border Trio of Jason Robinson, Rob Thorsen, and Paquito Villa with pianist/vibist Anthony Smith plays Dizzy's San Diego Friday, January 15, 2010, so we'll be chatting with some of the band and playing their music. Looking forward to digging some highly progressive and inventive Jazz and exploring the inspiration that comes to the band from the USA / Mexico border area. Coming...the New Jazz CDs pulled for tonight's spontaneously orchestrated show, the New This Week list of the lastest additions to the Jazz 88.3 Library, and more...

Robin McKelle is a vocalist creating a stir of late. Her first recording Introducing... was well received and her recent disc Modern Antique is getting good press. McKelle will perform at our next Jazz Live TONIGHT. Jazz Live is held in the acoustically renowned Saville Theater at City College. This show is SOLD OUT but listen to the live broadcast at 8 o'clock. Listen at http://Jazz88.org.

Janiva Magness turns Jazz Live San Diego into Blues Live in celebration of 26 years of "Every Shade of Blue" with 'T', the long running Blues show rockin' your Saturday nights from 9 pm to 2 am each week on Jazz 88!

Tonight...between EmCee duties tonight, I'm playing with the possibilities of the Jazz Live blog at Jazz88.org...stay tuned...

Gene Perry is leading the funkiest Afro-Cuban Latin Jazz Salsa big band around on stage at Jazz Live San Diego. Celebrating with the San Diego City College World Cultures Program tonight to a packed house at the Seville Theatre on the SDCC campus!

Here are some artifacts of a great night...and more to come on the Jazz Live blog...

Since
I'm not a professional writer it's easy to dismiss anything I might type about
Thelonious Monk. I have no particular insight into his career or his life. Nothing
to reveal about "'Round Midnight" or his singular style on piano. Instead
of typing, let me try telepathy.

I'm not
going to tell you that you're going to love Monk's music. Maybe you've already
made up your mind. Do a quick personal inventory. See if there's a little room
for something fun and serious, something surprising and traditional. Go ahead,
give it a shot.

With a
computer it's easy to dig in. Spell it right the first time, "Thelonious
Monk." Then listen, especially the solo stuff. Read some of the history or
stories about Monk. Watch a documentary. At least watch until you find the
scene on a bus in Copenhagen, I think, when Johnny Griffin shows his new pants
to Monk. So worth it.

Things are looking up for the Jazz88 Speakeasy. What once started as an idea is starting to bear some fruit. Our fearless Web Designer, Gil and our Web Master, Lev are putting all the pieces together for a fun, interactive and original Jazz88 Speakeasy. Not only will it look cool it will feature such content like: Artist Interviews, Jock Bios, Samples of original KSDS programs including full-length programming, Jazz Birthdays, the Jazz88 Blog, Videos, Jazz Live Gallery, A connection for the 'In-Crowd' Members and much much more. Next week, we start building the club...Right now, we're working on that secret password...be sure to knock twice to get in. It's hip...It's the Jazz88 Speakeasy. Stay tuned.

Finally, the new blog is available on our web site. Please bookmark and check out this page frequently, as we will keep you informed not only about everything that happens in the Jazz scene in San Diego, but in the Jazz world in general.